Introduction 1 Chapter I INTRODUCTION Teaching is a Jugglery of words, which needs to be practiced through the proper training, acquisition of various skills, competencies and relevant knowledge about the learner and the subject matter in the contemporary world. Education in 21 st century is a challenge to excellence in every endeavor. Newer and more vibrant areas of education have already come under the purview of teaching-learning. The uses of new media and technology have made education interesting and thrilling to the teachers as well as to the learners at all levels. The inclusion of health education, sex education, value and aesthetics education etc., have attained immense public attention in the professional training of teachers right from school level. Today we need well qualified and well prepared teachers who do not have only academic and professional competencies of high standard but also earnest responsibility and commitment to strive constantly to raise students’ learning, capacity and achievement so as to make them increasingly autonomous and self-actualizing persons. Teachers can craft or blight a nation. The Education Commission (1964-66) stated that a sound programme of professional education of teachers is essential for the qualitative improvement of education. It emphasized that investment in teacher education can yield very rich dividends because the financial resources required are small when measured against the resulting improvements in the education of millions. The Commission was of the view that training and orientation of teacher is very important so that he understands and accomplishes his changing role effectively. The National Policy on Education (1986) also stated that the status of teacher reflects the socio-cultural ethos of the society; it is said that no people can rise above the level of its teachers. The government and community should endeavour to create conditions, which will help motivate and inspire teachers on constructive and creative lines.The Policy has also suggested that the national strategy of education has to ensure the availability of highly educated, trained and motivated manpower for dealing with the challenges which are inherent in the modernization of the economy. The concerns expressed by the Education Commission (1964-66) and National Policy on Education (1986) are still relevant today. National Knowledge Commission
41
Embed
Chapter I INTRODUCTION - a reservoir of Indian thesesshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/19576/4/4. chapter 1.pdf · The constitutional goals, the directive principles of the
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Introduction
1
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
Teaching is a Jugglery of words, which needs to be practiced through the proper
training, acquisition of various skills, competencies and relevant knowledge about the
learner and the subject matter in the contemporary world.
Education in 21st century is a challenge to excellence in every endeavor. Newer and
more vibrant areas of education have already come under the purview of teaching-learning.
The uses of new media and technology have made education interesting and thrilling to the
teachers as well as to the learners at all levels. The inclusion of health education, sex
education, value and aesthetics education etc., have attained immense public attention in the
professional training of teachers right from school level. Today we need well qualified and
well prepared teachers who do not have only academic and professional competencies of
high standard but also earnest responsibility and commitment to strive constantly to raise
students’ learning, capacity and achievement so as to make them increasingly autonomous
and self-actualizing persons. Teachers can craft or blight a nation.
The Education Commission (1964-66) stated that a sound programme of professional
education of teachers is essential for the qualitative improvement of education. It
emphasized that investment in teacher education can yield very rich dividends because the
financial resources required are small when measured against the resulting improvements in
the education of millions. The Commission was of the view that training and orientation of
teacher is very important so that he understands and accomplishes his changing role
effectively.
The National Policy on Education (1986) also stated that the status of teacher reflects
the socio-cultural ethos of the society; it is said that no people can rise above the level of its
teachers. The government and community should endeavour to create conditions, which will
help motivate and inspire teachers on constructive and creative lines.The Policy has also
suggested that the national strategy of education has to ensure the availability of highly
educated, trained and motivated manpower for dealing with the challenges which are
inherent in the modernization of the economy.
The concerns expressed by the Education Commission (1964-66) and National
Policy on Education (1986) are still relevant today. National Knowledge Commission
Introduction
2
(2007) and National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (2009) have suggested
that a teacher needs to be prepared in relation to the needs and demands arising in the school
context, to engage with questions of school knowledge, the learner and the learning process.
Teaching is a profession and teacher education is a professional preparation of teachers.
Preparing one for the profession is an arduous task and it involves action from multiple
fronts and perspectives.
It has become necessary to raise the professional competency of teachers keeping in
view the geographical, social, economic, gender and cultural diversities of the country in
general and states in particular. The reforms in teacher education, which were initiated in the
country from time to time, have a long history.
1.1 TEACHER EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW
Education today is under myriad constraints and challenges and so is the teacher
education. It calls forth setting and settling diverse issues of human assets and probes into
some of the crucial problems of human enlightenment. Teacher education is perhaps more
confronted with how to negotiate and significantly address the world of teaching-learning
than merely dealing with duties, responsibilities and classroom assignments. It is now at the
fork of fullness of vision in a fascinated world of immediate gain in every endeavor and
worries and frustrations in fruitless teaching sans joy, sans freedom and creative adventure.
As a consequence, the challenges of teacher education today for addressing tougher ones of
tomorrow remains a far more thrilling adventure to be more worthily undertaken
(Chakrabarti, 2008, p. 9).
As an integral component of the educational system, teacher education is intimately
connected with society and is conditioned by the ethos, culture and character of a nation.
The constitutional goals, the directive principles of the state policy, the socio-economic
problems and the growth of the knowledge, the emerging expectations and changes
operating in education etc. call for an appropriate response from a futuristic education
system and provide the perspective within which teacher education programmes need to be
viewed. Education of teachers needs to strengthen and stress upon the main attributes of a
profession, such as the systematic theory, rigorous training over a specified duration,
authority, community sanction, ethical code and culture, generating knowledge through
research and specialization. It is already acknowledged that formal professional training on
Introduction
3
continuous basis is necessary for becoming a good teacher as it caters to the development of
one’s personality and sharpening of communication skills and commitment to a code of
conduct (Verma, 2006, p. v).
1.2 MEANING AND CONCEPT OF TEACHER EDUCATION
Teacher education is the process of providing teachers and potential teachers with
the skills and knowledge necessary to teach effectively in a classroom environment or
outside the classroom environment. It is the professional preparation, in pedagogy, of those
who want to enter the profession of teaching. This may be traditional and closed type with
objectivist orientation which focuses on the product of learning or may be progressive and
open type with an orientation of subjectivity of the pupils focusing on the process of
learning (Mangla, 2001, p. 3).
Goods (1973) dictionary of education has defined teacher education as “all the
formal and informal activities and experiences that help to qualify a person to assume the
responsibilities as a member of the educational profession or to discharge his responsibilities
most effectively”.
According to Good (1941), teacher education not only refers to the total educative
experiences which contribute to the preparation of a person for a teaching position in
schools, but the term is more commonly employed to designate the program of courses and
other experiences offered by an educational institute for the announced purpose of preparing
persons for teaching and other educational service and for contributing to their growth in
competency for such services.
A programme of teacher education derives its theoretical support from a basic
philosophy of education, the historical and sociological forces shaping education and
psychological view points on how human beings learn. The different theoretical view points
of psychology regarding the understanding of human behaviour and its modification,
especially as they influence teacher education practices, are of greater relevance. For quite
some time, now, the behaviorist model which analyses teaching and learning to a series of
sequentially arranged specific tasks; skills and competencies, influenced teacher education
leading to the adoption of innovative practices. The kind and amount of teacher education
varies greatly with situation, time and need. Effective teacher education programme
incorporates an integrated view of all its stages and relate it to two new dimensions. First
Introduction
4
dimension consists of Vertical integration of teacher education from the pre-school to the
university stage and the education of all kinds of teachers throughout life, whereas the
second dimension consists of horizontal interaction of teacher education whereby all
institutions, agencies and social groups concerned with the effectiveness of education, link
together their efforts for the professional education and development of teachers. The
character of teacher education is dynamic with regard to the dynamic process of working
and prospective as well as regular experienced teachers, who are sensitive to the new
challenging roles and in developing their knowledge and competencies. Therefore, the
trainee centered professional preparation and emphasis on demonstration of expected
teacher behaviours by teacher educators themselves are necessary in an effective teacher
education programme where prospective teachers are taught: how to enjoy the freedom to
exceed the parameters of the text book in favour of truth and academic honesty;
advancement of present knowledge and ability to communicate and interpret facts in the
class without violating the norms; managing the classrooms; use of multimedia and multi
method approach while teaching; providing guidance; participation in extension and social
services, undertaking and promoting research-experimentation-innovation; exhibiting their
sense of accountability; commitment to the code of conduct and; developing their
scholarship and skills (Mangla, 2001, pp. 4-7).
De Landsheere (1987) emphasized that for enjoying the same social status and
prestige as all those who eminently serve society, today’s or tomorrows teachers must be
professional, whose educational programme and level should be more and more comparable
with the physician’s education.
Alvin Toffler in Future Shocks has outlined the role of teacher and said, “It is no
longer sufficient for Johnny to understand the past. It is not even enough for him to
understand the present, for the here-and-now environment will soon vanish. Johnny must
learn to anticipate the directions and rate of change. He must, to put it technically, learn to
make repeated, probabilistic, increasingly long-range assumptions about the future. And so
must Johnny’s teachers” (Toffler, 1970, p. 364).
The dynamic concept of teacher education has tried to make it essentially task
oriented. It is, in principle, governed by the philosophy that, “ teacher should play the role of
Introduction
5
leader inside and outside the classroom, initiate action for the transformation of the society
as an agent of social change and thereby help achieve the goal of national development”.
The primary aim of all teacher education systems at all stages was/is to produce
‘good’ teachers. In older times a good teacher was one who had high scholarship and moral
character. Later on it meant subject competence, while still later it meant a highly
disciplined traditionalist.
The above discussion of the concept of teacher education and teacher’s role down the
ages, particularly since independence, emphasizes that if any educational programme has to
prove worthwhile and useful for the society, it must respond to the needs and aspirations of
the society. An effective and useful system of teacher education produces teachers who have
a sense of obligation, and a dynamic social conscience. It, therefore, affirms that in a
democratic, secular and free society like India, there is need for teacher education which can
offer opportunities and situations for prospective teachers for grasping principles and critical
methods of teaching. It also requires that they develop a mental culture to appreciate
fundamental concepts and alternatives and develop their own free judgment and a sense of
intellectual independence. The greatest need in teacher education today is to develop a
concept within the parameters of our experiences and social needs, and to develop sufficient
grounds for rational justification to support this concept. This means strengthening theory
and developing teacher education as a discipline. Its principles of epistemology, logic and
philosophy will have to be strengthened through continuous research and contemplation.
Such an effort would lead to better understanding and effective conceptual clarity. Teacher
education with its curricula, aims and methodology will have to be conceived in terms of the
wider society. It has to be, by its very nature and purpose, an aspect of education which
encourages immersion in the changing phenomenon constituting the living environment. A
meaningful concept of teacher education cannot sustain itself in a philosophy of withdrawal.
It has to be set, within the living environment of the community for continuous widening of
its own horizon and for enriching itself and the community it is committed to serve, through
dynamic interaction. Hence, the idea of working with the community has to be integrated
into the total teacher education programme. Such an approach is bound to enrich the concept
of teacher’s role from a seeker to a thinker, and then to a doer. In fact, all these aspects need
to get merged into one. In many developed societies, the concept of teacher education has
Introduction
6
emerged as a sophisticated discipline and a rigorous professional training with its advanced
and clear cut notions of the theory and practice. It has related itself to researches and
innovations being carried out in the area of psychology, philosophy and other social
sciences, leading to the emergence of new and meaningful concepts within the discipline
itself. Highly structured techniques of teaching, increasing use of hardware in teaching-
learning situations, broad concepts of educational planning, examination and evaluation of
students are some of the features of a colorful drama that is being enacted in the modern
educational world. It will be extremely interesting, inspiring and challenging even for the
most lethargic, unmotivated and lifeless teacher. No programme of teacher education can
ignore such happenings, as well as the feverish educational activities, going on all around.
This would therefore, mean revamping much of the organization and structure of teacher
education in India, and making it philosophically and sociologically meaningful for the
larger society (Mangla, 2001, pp. 8-9).
1.3 NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
A teacher has been given great regards, since ancient times, not only in India, but
also in the world.
Manu, the ancient law giver has said, “A teacher is the image of Brahma (the creator
of the universe)”. An old Indian Prayer says, “Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo
Maheshwara, Guru Sakshat Par Brahma, Tasmai Shri Guruve Namah” i.e. “The teacher is
God Brahma; he is God Maheshwara. He is the whole universe, obeisance to the teacher”.
According to Indian Culture, a child receives his physical birth from the parents and second
birth at the hands of the teacher. The teacher is given a higher position than parents, because
he opens the pupil’s eyes of knowledge and moulds his character. As it is said that God
created man after His own image, so also the teacher fashions his student after his own
image.
In the Western world also, the teacher is given great regards, Adams said, “A teacher
affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops”. In other words, his work does
not confine to a particular state or a country; it transcends all the boundaries. His
contributions do not confine to a particular period of time. His influence can cover the entire
span of life. Henry van Dyke once said, “I sing the praise of the unknown teacher, king of
himself and leader of mankind”. The American Commission on Teacher Education
Introduction
7
observed, “The quality of a nation depends upon the quality of its citizens. The quality of its
citizens depends not exclusively, but in critical measure upon the quality of their education,
the quality of their education depends more than upon any single factor, upon the quality of
their teacher” (Mohanty, 2003, p. 273).
The role of the teacher and his/her education is the foundations on which the super-
structure of the education of a country is based. Besides the initial preparation of teachers,
the teacher education also includes the programmes for further education of teachers already
engaged in the teaching profession and with the assumption that the teaching activity can be
definitely improved after undergoing such programmes. Professor Humanyun Kabir rightly
stated, “Without good teachers even the best system is bound to fail. With good teachers
even the defects of a system can be largely overcome”. To meet the national needs
especially those of 21st century teachers have to decide on and construe the curriculum, aids
to instruction and persuade boys and girls with their demeanor and deeds. Teachers have a
great responsibility at a time when the society is undergoing transformation in re-orienting
education. Their task will not be confined to preserve, interpret and transmit the culture to
the coming generation, but also to bring about social change. They have to work as active
agents in ushering forth-new social order based on equality, liberty and justice. Indeed,
teachers have an astounding task to perform.
The contemporary teacher education though has grown manifold over the decades,
but is overshadowed by severe criticism for being static and unresponsive to the emerging
challenges of the present time. The knowledge, skills and methodologies propagated by the
system remain alien and never get assimilated in the school system. Teacher education
continues to be viewed in isolation, disconnected from other factors that shape the role and
performance of a teacher such as recruitment, salary, working conditions and overall
professional development. Over the years, few initiatives have been taken for betterment but
results are not convincing. Quality improvement of our teacher education programme is one
of the indispensable needs that call for immediate attention. Undoubtedly, the quality of
school education is the direct consequence and outcome of the quality of teachers and the
teacher education system. More so, in this era of globalization, teachers are exposed to
increasingly challenging changes, uncertainties and expectations as they perform their
professional duties. In addition to teaching, they are often required to take up expanded roles
Introduction
8
and responsibilities related to school management, curriculum planning, teacher mentoring,
etc. In such a complex environment, effective career-long teacher development programmes
that build teacher capacities and professional competencies are of crucial importance to
quality education. All this implies the ‘Central position’ occupied by the teacher who is seen
as essentially a means-ends broker and teaching is conceived as a technical exercise, an
applied science, concerned with and according to the criteria of means-end efficiency.
Hence, a strategic vision towards quality teacher education is essential to transform teacher
education as a strategy in itself. Teacher education as a continuous process needs
prioritization to implement an alternative paradigm for quality teacher education. The school
community and the teacher training institutions have to move towards building a shared
commitment for a paradigm shift in teacher education. Hence, an alternative paradigm
towards quality teacher education does not call for more of the same–more time, more
subjects, more courses–but for a transformation based on its utility for the school and the
society. In the new millennium, teacher education should be built on the premise: ‘teacher
education–of the people, by the people and for the people to attain Quality Education for
All’.
1.4 TEACHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
The development of formal system of teacher education in India can be attributed to
two periods of history viz. pre-independence and post-independence. Some of the
educationists are of the view that origin of teacher education can be traced back to ancient
times. The teacher education in ancient times was traditional and religion based which
underwent changes with the changing times.
The story of development of teacher education in India is quite impressive and
noteworthy from the point of view of those, who are going to be future teachers. The teacher
education today is the reflection of all the changes, whether religion based, traditional,
social, cultural, economical, political etc. which occurred in India from time to time. It is
pertinent to have an overview of how these developments have occurred during the past
many centuries (http://www.ncte-india.org/pub/policy/policy_0.htm). A brief review of
major events in the development of teacher education in India is presented below:
Introduction
9
Teacher Education during Vedic, Buddhist and Muslim Period:
During Vedic period, there was no formal system of education, although education
was provided by the teachers (Guru) in their residences popularly known as ‘Gurukuls’. In
Gurukul centered education monitorial system, in the absence of teachers was quite
prevalent. The monitorial system was sufficient enough to provide incentives and
developing attitudes like that of teachers and offered opportunities to able and intelligent
students to learn the art of teaching. This indirectly performed the same function as colleges
of education perform today. This Gurukul centered tradition of Vedic period was improved
and enriched by the ‘Vihara’ centered education of Buddhist period, in which whole
education, including teacher education, was carried out in Viharas. In these Viharas
monastic system was prevailed, in which a student (Monk) had to learn and teach under the
supervision of two teachers (Bhikshus or Upajjhaya) to qualify for the status of ‘Acharya’.
Teaching involved putting questions, discharging advices and guidelines, through
instruction, exposition, debate, discussion, use of stories etc. and it was a bit more
systematic than the one in past. This continued till the 11th century A. D. till the arrival of
Muslims. The arrival of Muslims witnessed the rise of a parallel ‘Maktab’ based tradition
along with the old one and the two traditions thrived side by side. In Muslim system,
elementary education was provided in ‘Maktabs’ and higher education was imparted in
‘Madarsas’. The learned were respected and teachers were mostly Maulvis. Sometimes
scholarly persons were also employed to teach. There existed no official record of training
of teachers, but many other historical records have witnessed that the teacher preparation
was done by initiation of the older teachers. Good students were appointed tutors to teach
junior students. The, monitorial system was also prevalent during Muslim system of
education. Pedagogy was developed by them but, not as the separate branch of knowledge,
as is today. During these periods the teacher education was unorganized and traditional and
prevailed till the coming of the British.
Teacher Education during British Period:
The whole credit of making a formal system of teacher education, like today, goes to
British as they were the first in sowing the seeds of this system of teacher education in India.
The formal teacher education found its roots soon after its inception and quickly diversified
itself. The initial attempts formally made towards teacher education seem to have been by
Introduction
10
some private agencies in the three Presidencies under the East India Company, during the
early decades of the 19th century. These were the Calcutta School Society formed in 1819,
the Native Education Society of Bombay (1820) and Madras School Society (1820). These
societies received grants specifically for training of teachers in their schools. The annual
reports of the three Presidencies mentioned the attempts made by these societies to educate
their teachers. In Madras, the Madras School Societies’ efforts were noted with appreciation
and an amount was sanctioned in support of its activities even before 1824. This suggests
that the earlier efforts in teacher education for working teachers were in the nature of private
initiatives. State initiatives ensued only as an aftermath of the government assuming the
responsibility for education in India. Non-availability of an adequate number of schools,
both vernacular and Anglo-vernacular, in-effective instruction provided in them and similar
issues were continuously addressed by several officers. It is significant to note that the
recognition of training needs existed simultaneously with the development of formal school
system. Between 1815 and 1854, opinions in favour of teacher education accumulated and
spread across different administrative levels. There was an increased perception of the need
for more schools. As a result, training of school teachers gained attention as a possible
mechanism for expanding the school system at a cheaper cost using ‘native’ teachers and
maintaining a certain quality. In 1826, Lord Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras, along
with providing financial support to private initiatives, also gave a detailed proposal for
establishment of training schools in each Collectorate as principal schools, with a continuous
supply of trained teachers. As a result of several such developments, the three private
societies were granted some sums of money. The reported impact of training of teachers was
quite positive, though not fully effective. Recognition of the inevitable slowness in accruing
more positive result in any new practice was also there. Government’s initiatives in teacher
education came only as a consequence of Wood’s Dispatch of 1854. The general opinion
thus generated among the administrators received support after Wood’s Dispatch that
recognized the great deficiency in the facilities for the teachers’ training and desired to see
establishment, with as little delay as possible of training. As a sequel to this, normal schools
for training primary school teachers were established in each Presidency, making the official
acceptance of teacher training formal as an integral part of the Indian education system. The
Presidency towns were the first to have normal training schools, with Madras in the lead
Introduction
11
(1856). These schools were found to be quite effective in the sense that their products were
found to be superior to untrained teachers in schools (http://www.ncte-
india.org/pub/policy/policy_0.htm).
The normal schools initially provided pedagogic training of some sort for teachers of
primary schools. The duration and nature of training varied across the Presidencies. They
were expanded to include prospective teachers who were ‘bright, young men’ willing to
receive admission for training with stipends and not the headmasters of the schools.
Significantly, separate training started for prospective teachers for each class/grade
including females too. However, larger difficulty was observed in attracting females for
training. Gradually, school education expanded to include ‘middle’ classes and a little later,
‘secondary’classes. The establishment of universities after 1857 led to an increase in the
number of colleges. This development had an impact on normal schools. While the main
focus was on providing knowledge and pedagogy suited to particular grades, students were
permitted, along with a special course on ‘Method’, to study subjects of matriculation which
would facilitate their entry to the universities later. Normal schools gradually began to
attract more students for being selected for stipends and certification, which came to be seen
as surety for getting jobs. In fact, some annual reports from the Presidencies expressed
concern about wrong youth getting selected which affected the quality of training. In 1859,
Stanley’s Dispatch observed that ‘the institution of training schools does not seem to have
been carried out to the extent contemplated by the Court of Directors’. Later on, due to
continued, increased and diversified expansion of teacher education, the Indian Education
Commission (1882) provided some definite directions for furthering teacher education in
India. The commission not only approved teacher training programmes for both elementary
and secondary school teachers but also recommended a separate programme for secondary
school training, distinctly higher in level, form and method. It also recommended separate
training programmes for graduates and undergraduates. The commission was of the view
that such a programme should include ‘an examination in the principles and practice of
teaching… success in which should hereafter be a condition of permanent employment as a
teacher in any secondary school, government or aided’. As a sequel to the report of the
commission, training colleges were established for the first time in India and six training
colleges came in to existence, one each in Allahabad and Jabalpur (1890); Kurseong, Lahore
Introduction
12
and Madras (1886) and; Rajamundary (1894). Thus, by the end of nineteenth century,
teacher education got established as a substantial structural set-up. Though, it was
predominantly a state-supported programme, there was an increase in private initiatives too,
mostly with state financial support. The institutional structure of teacher education
diversified in to normal schools, secondary training schools and training colleges, run by the
state and private enterprises, and with well-differentiated training inputs as well as
procedural and certification details (http://www.ncte-india.org/pub/policy/policy_0.htm).
The onset of twentieth century ushered in a period of real transition in the field of
teacher education as it did in political and social spheres in India. The seeds of transition
were sown by the Viceroy Lord Curzon (1902-05). He took several significant steps to
improve the quality of education. His emphasis was on improvement of quality and not
quantity at all levels of education. He highlighted these concerns in his ‘Resolution on
Education Policy’ (1904), which is more commonly known as ‘Government of India
Resolution of 1904’. The Resolution emphasized the necessity of providing a large number
of training institutions for primary teachers with the duration of training being a minimum of
two years. The other recommendations relevant to teacher education were: 1) the equipment
of a training college should be as important as that of an arts college; 2) the training courses
for graduates should be one-year university courses leading to a university degree, while
training courses for undergraduates should be of two years; 3) the theory and practice of
teaching should be included in training courses; 4) a practicing school should be attached to
each training college; 5) every possible care should be taken to maintain a connection
between a training college and schools. But, before the resolution could be implemented,
Curzon was recalled in 1905. The Resolution, however, provided direction to further action
by subsequent Viceroys who decided to continue with these decisions (http://www.ncte-
india.org/pub/policy/policy_0.htm).
Later, as a sequel to the Minto-Morley Reforms of 1909, the government passed
another resolution on Educational Policy in 1913 which, among other things, declared that
‘...eventually under the modern system of education no teacher should be allowed to teach
without a certificate that he is qualified to do so’. After this, within less than a decade the
Calcutta University Commission (1917-19), though limited to Calcutta University made
some recommendations which had implications for other educational institutions as well
Introduction
13
(Garg, 2000, pp. 11-17). It pointed out that poor quality of training is imparted in existing
training colleges, and recommended the establishment of a Department of Education at the
University to be manned by a Professor, Readers and Lecturers with a demonstration school
attached to it, for experimentation with new methods of teaching, curriculum planning, and
school organization (Chauhan, 2004, p. 208).
Not many new developments occurred between 1920 and 1929. The various
achievements in education of this period included a marginal increase in number of
educational institutions despite the large-scale boycott of English schools and colleges by
the Indians. The idea of a national education system received a fresh impetus and institutions
with explicit nationalist learning mushroomed all over the country. The growing
dissatisfaction with the educational system, its growing size and the revival of a parallel
network of national education institutions alarmed the government about falling quality of
education making it ‘largely ineffective and wasteful’. In order to look into the matter more
carefully, the Auxiliary Committee of Indian Statutory Commission, more commonly
known as the Hartog Committee, named after its Chairman, Sir Philip Hartog, was set up in
1929. It made important recommendations about the training of primary school teachers in
terms of uplifting the standards, lengthening the duration, adequate staffing for training
programmes of primary teachers and improving the service conditions of primary school
teachers to attract and retain better quality of teachers. It was for the first time that explicit
concern about the service conditions of school teachers was indicated as a recommendation
by any committee. In accordance with the above recommendations efforts were made to
streamline training and working conditions of teachers. These recommendations also led to
the setting up of in-service education programmes for primary school teachers and training
institutions were equipped with laboratories, libraries and practicing schools. Amidst the
turmoil of World War II (1939-45) and the Quit India Movement (1942), a major event of
educational significance was the setting up of the Sargent Committee in 1944. With regard
to teacher training, the Sargent Committee stressed on the establishment of provisions for
training different categories of teachers, picking up of suitable persons for teaching jobs,
refresher courses for giving in-service training, teaching practice and research facilities.
Meanwhile, in-service training in the form of short courses, evening classes, summer school
courses, etc. were started in Madras, the United Provinces, the Northern Provinces, Bombay
Introduction
14
and Jalandhar. These developments achieved at the instance of colonial Government of India
during 1902-45, indicate the growing concern about teacher education in respect of not only
making it a necessary equipment for a school teacher, but also prescribing adequate
administrative and organizational specifications as to the content, components, duration and
relevance of training mode available to school teachers. It is pertinent to remember that the
first decade of this century was rife with political turmoil. A general attitude of suspicion
and distrust towards the colonial Government became increasingly widespread among
Indians and as a result, any effort by government to ‘regulate’ educational institution
through quality control met with strong criticism from educated Indians. It is relevant to note
that teacher education was not greatly affected during this period of turmoil (1902-45).
Obviously, within a disturbed educational system, training of teachers could not be a major
priority (Garg, 2000, pp. 20-27).
It is evident from Table – 1.1 that the progress of teacher training in India was very
slow during pre-independence period. In 1881-82, the total number of training schools was
113 with 4080 trainees in them. This number increased to 152 in 1891-92, 179 in 1901-02,
575 in 1911-12, 1072 in 1921-22 and then decreased to 612 in 1941-42. In 1946-47, the total
number of training schools was 650 with an enrolment of 38,770 trainees. However, the
number of secondary teacher training colleges increased to 31 by 1941-42 and 42 by 1946-
47. The total enrolment in these institutions was 3,100 in 1946-47 (Chauhan, 2004, pp. 208-
09).
Table – 1.1
Teacher Education during British Period
Year Training Schools Training Colleges Number Enrolment Number Enrolment